Abu Dhabi to meet Asian fixed-income investors in mid-November

DUBAI: The Abu Dhabi government plans to meet fixed-income investors in Asia during the second week of November for three days of roadshows, although no new sovereign bond issue is in the works, three sources familiar with the plan told Reuters.
The non-deal roadshows will be organized by HSBC, the sources said.
A spokesman for the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance declined to comment.
The meetings are part of Abu Dhabi’s regular program of updating and engaging with investors, the sources said. The sovereign met investors in the US in sessions arranged by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in April.
Middle Eastern debt issuers are keen to raise the standards of investor relations in the region, having been criticized for a lack of transparency in the past, through more frequent contact with bondholders.
Asian investors have become key for regional borrowers looking to diversify their investor base away from local and Western investors.
While there has been speculation in recent months about Abu Dhabi or one of the wealthy emirate’s quasi-sovereign entities tapping capital markets, nothing has emerged.
Abu Dhabi, which sits on 7 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and is the largest and wealthiest of the seven-member UAE federation, last issued a sovereign bond in April 2009.
“A deal probably won’t follow, I think they might have missed the 2012 window,” said a regional banker. “The sovereign hasn’t issued since 2009, so they would need a proper roadshow.”
The last government-related issuer from Abu Dhabi was Dolphin Energy, majority-owned by state fund Mubadala, which raised $1.3 billion in February.
Last week, it emerged that the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, the top policymaking body in the emirate, had issued a document clarifying ultimate responsibility for new debt issuance by Abu Dhabi’s government-related entities and the role of Abu Dhabi’s fledgling Debt Management Office.